This guide explains how to configure your Display Terminal Unit to play a YouTube video while the display is idle. When a manual or automated slate is sent to the device, video playback will automatically stop and the slate will be displayed. Once the slate’s display duration has expired, the device will automatically resume playback of the configured YouTube video.
Identify Your Video and creating a slate to display that video
Identifying your YouTube video’s unique ID
Navigate to your desired YouTube video as if you were going to watch it.
In the address bar of your browser, you can find the unique video ID in the URL:
| URL Parameter | v=<unique_video_ID> |
| Example ID | 6gmjCVaRfjY |
Copy or document this unique ID for future use
Creating a video slate
Follow these steps in the Vidimax interface:
- Navigate to the Slates tab and click Add Template
- Name your template and set the Slate Type to Message
- Enable HTML Editor Mode
You will be prompted with the HTML editor. Paste the code snippet below, replacing
INSERT_HERE with your video ID (don’t worry about including <body> elements or anything outside of it, vidimax handles it for you):
<iframe
width="560"
height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/INSERT_HERE?autoplay=1&mute=0&controls=0&playsinline=1&enablejsapi=1"
title="YouTube video player"
frameborder="0"
allow="autoplay; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"
referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
allowfullscreen>
</iframe>
Mute Setting Reference
If desired you can have the video globally muted without the need to adjust every single targeted display. Simply adjust the mute variable in the src url of the code snippet
| Value | Behavior |
| mute=0 | Video plays with sound https://www.youtube.com/embed/INSERT_HERE?autoplay=1&mute=0 |
| mute=1 | Video plays silently (muted) https://www.youtube.com/embed/INSERT_HERE?autoplay=1&mute=1 |
Save & Send
Click Save, then test by manually sending the slate using the red Send to Displays icon.
If the push duration is shorter than the video length, the video will end early.
Configure your DTU to Display your Video at Rest
Configuring your Display Terminal Unit
Now that your video slate has been created and tested, you can configure your Display Terminal Unit to play the video while the display is idle.
Follow these steps in the Vidimax interface:
- Navigate to the Displays tab.
- Identify the display you would like to play the video on.
- Click the Actions button.
- Locate the Slate Configuration section. There are two available modes of operation:
- Single Slate – Displays a single slate while the device is idle.
- Slideshow – Displays a series of slates in sequence. Each slate is shown for its configured duration before advancing to the next. Once the final slate is displayed, the slideshow automatically repeats from the beginning.
- Enable the Allow Interruptions option. This allows external events, such as weather alerts or other automated rules, to interrupt the idle content and display higher-priority information.
- Select the desired mode of operation.
- Click Add Slate.
- Enter the name of the video slate you created previously and click OK.
- Repeat this step to add additional slates when using Slideshow mode.
- Edit the duration for each slate set, If the target video is set the duration in seconds to the length of the video
- Click Save Changes.
- Repeat these steps for any additional displays.
Display Behavior
When Allow Interruptions is enabled, the display will automatically show its configured idle content during normal operation. If a weather alert is received or the system is manually triggered, the idle content will be interrupted and the configured emergency message will be displayed. Once the emergency message has been shown for its configured duration, the display will automatically return to its idle content.